Portugal decriminalised drugs 14 years ago – and now hardly anyone dies from overdosing

[Jesus Malverde]

Portugal decriminalised the use of all drugs in 2001. Weed, cocaine, heroin, you name it — Portugal decided to treat possession and use of small quantities of these drugs as a public health issue, not a criminal one. The drugs were still illegal, of course. But now getting caught with them meant a small fine and maybe a referral to a treatment program — not jail time and a criminal record.

Among Portuguese adults, there are 3 drug overdose deaths for every 1,000,000 citizens. Comparable numbers in other countries range from 10.2 per million in the Netherlands to 44.6 per million in the UK, all the way up to 126.8 per million in Estonia. The EU average is 17.3 per million.

Perhaps more significantly, the report notes that the use of "legal highs" – like so-called "synthetic" marijuana, "bath salts" and the like – is lower in Portugal than in any of the other countries for which reliable data exists. This makes a lot of intuitive sense: why bother with fake weed or dangerous designer drugs when you can get the real stuff? This is arguably a positive development for public health in the sense that many of the designer drugs that people develop to skirt existing drug laws have terrible and often deadly side effects.

snip

Still, it's very clear that decriminalisation hasn't had the severe consequences that its opponents predicted. As the Transform Drug Policy Institute says in its analysis of Portugal's drug laws, "The reality is that Portugal’s drug situation has improved significantly in several key areas. Most notably, HIV infections and drug-related deaths have decreased, while the dramatic rise in use feared by some has failed to materialise."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/portugal-decriminalised-drugs-14-years-ago--and-now-hardly-anyone-dies-from-overdosing-10301780.html

[bigwillq]

1. Kick (nt)

[Warpy]

2. I imagine overall use has remained steady

because some people are using them as pain control or even recreation from time to time, while the hard core addict population has declined.

Why do I think this? The UK had a program some decades ago wherein they registered addicts and gave them clean doses of their drug of choice. The program ran 10 years, saw an 80% drop in street crime, and by the end of the program, half the addicts had simply tapered off their dope and were drug free, a better outcome than any rehab clinic can boast.

The drug war is a dismal failure that is creating more problems than it ever promised (and failed) to solve. We need to end it.

[wysi]

8. Overall use was down actually...

... particularly in the 15-19 year old age bracket, as of an evaluation published in 2008. It was slightly up in the older age bracket (20-24) but overall use was down.

Please forgive the source of the link, the study itself is quite good.

http://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/greenwald_whitepaper.pdf

[Warpy]

9. I put Cato into the "stopped clock" category

Reducing the anxiety around obtaining one's daily dosage probably did result in a reduction. However, I'd still expect it to remain essentially flat, at least for the first few years.

Legalization works. It defunds the gangs, closes the pipeline to kids, and generates revenue for the treasury while improving relations with citizens who are being treated like adults, not halfwits who need the state nanny to supervise them.

[wysi]

10. I couldn't agree more.

I do research in alcohol and drug epidemiology and I'm in complete agreement with your sentiments. It's going to be very interesting to see the data coming out of Colorado, Washington, Alaska and now Oregon.

[PatrickforO]

15. Oh oh. A program like that works FAR too well! I'm sure the

conservative party ended it! Got to nip those kinds of things in the bud, you know.

[newfie11]

3. I remember all the warning then

So happy to see they were wrong!!!

[MsLeopard]

4. Yes, but

Their prisons are probably empty! No one's making money off a war on drugs.... What are they thinking???

[jomin41]

5. Really, it's worse than a failure.

Because it is, and always has been, fraudulent. From the beginning 100 years ago up to today, it was started, maintained, upgraded, through lies. It is still happening. The damage has been truly catastrophic on a global scale. Death, destruction, corruption, growth of arbitrary power, diminishment of personal rights and freedoms, recharging racism, and on and on and on. I don't know how this has persisted in the face of evidence, from the very beginning(!), that it was uncalled for. What is wrong with our system that something this wrong can start, grow, and persist while the damage pile grows and grows?

[riderinthestorm]

6. Showing the rest of us how it's done. Big K&R nt

[valerief]

7. So Portugal doesn't have a super-militarized police force beating the shit out of and

killing "suspect" individuals? Don't have FOR-PROFIT prisons bursting at the seams with slave labor?

My, how do they get along?

[AtheistCrusader]

11. Bush III will declare war on Portugal 'for the children'.

Can't have mature examples of healthy societies embarrassing us. Thems fighting words.

[Ed Suspicious]

12. I would not doubt that at all.

[NoMoreRepugs]

13. compare those #'s to the good ol' US of A for just our prescription drug overdose deaths per year

http://www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates

17000+ -/- 242,000,000 = 70 per million

242m from --- http://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/tables/99-total-population-by-child-and-adult#detailed/1/any/false/36,868,867,133,38/39,40,41/416,417

I wasn't able to find much about illegal drug overdose statistics, best guess they exceed prescription drug overdose deaths simply because they are far less expensive.

[eppur_se_muova]

14. Such a dramatic -- and informative -- contrast to this policy:

Governor Abbott to Drug Overdosers: Drop Dead